The talent leaders their peers put forward — a selection of the names in the running for 20 seats in their industry.
“Randy exemplifies the convergence of enthusiastic engagement and rigorous process, creating a truly excellent end to end candidate experience. His meteoric growth at Ascend is a testament to his ability to scale high impact hiring at fast growth start-ups, where he's at the forefront of technology adoption and human oriented hiring. Randy's transparency and candidate oriented kindness sets a standard for all.”
“Josh Longnecker builds go-to-market teams for technology startups — the stage where hiring is least forgiving and every hire shows up in next quarter's numbers. Josh does this without trading humanity for speed: honest calibration with hiring managers, and candidates who get a straight answer instead of silence. Founders come to him for the roles they can't afford to get wrong, and candidates he passed on still take his calls. He exemplifies where excellence meets compassion in the hiring space.”
“Erica puts the person in People and Community leadership. From Tesla and Airbnb to scaling Chime from 200 to 1,500 people, Erica Waichman has built hiring machines without ever letting the candidate experience become collateral damage. As Head of People & Community at Canvas Ventures, she now multiplies that across a portfolio: owning firm hiring, running the Go-to-Market Council, and coaching founders through the foundational hires that determine whether a company works. Founders call her before they write the job description. Candidates remember her long after the process ends.”
“Mason builds hiring around real conversations, not transactions, by earning trust first, then aligning people with where they actually want to go. AI supports the process behind the scenes, but the outcome is driven by judgment, relationships, and follow-through.”
“Hiring is innately human. Every hire should raise the average, with the goal of finding world class talent that genuinely moves the needle. AI should cut through the noise and create more space for the judgement and relationships that make great hiring happen.”
“Ashley Wetzel is a seasoned talent acquisition leader with nearly 20 years of recruiting experience. As director of recruiting, Ashley has led the charge in AI adoption, returning more than 10,650 hours back to her team.”
“I’ve always believed that great hiring starts with great people. I’m passionate about empowering teams to do their best work, using AI to remove admin and create more time for the human conversations that make hiring successful.”
“Talent Acquisition leader who spent 20+ years finding great people, building strong teams, and helping people grow. I use AI to work smarter, spot talent faster, and lead my team to make hiring more human.”
“The best hiring organizations combine human judgment with AI-powered efficiency to deliver a better experience for candidates and hiring teams alike.”
“I lead talent brand across a global technology group building an AI-powered workforce, after 15+ years shaping culture and employer brand at Booking.com and Miro. I'm deeply passionate about the AI transformation narrative, and what it actually means for people. My whole focus right now is a single question: as we automate how we hire and employ, how do we protect the care? Because the more powerful the tools get, the more the human parts, honesty, judgment, treating people as people, not a process, become the thing that matters most.”
“I am a seasoned Global Talent Acquisition Leader with 19+ years of experience transforming how organizations discover and secure top-tier talent. In my current role as Director of Talent Acquisition at Neurealm, I head the operations for the Pune Centre and direct comprehensive onsite hiring framework strategies. AI has been critical part of my end to end hiring process where it starts from resume screening - interview - selection - onboarding - happy journey”
“I believe great hiring is built on the right balance of human judgment, business understanding, and speed. AI helps us make the process smarter and more efficient, while the final connection between the right person and the right opportunity remains deeply human.”
“AI is transforming how companies work and how they compete for talent. It’s making the market more competitive and talent attraction more nuanced. AI-forward builders are questioning old assumptions about how work gets done, raising the bar for what great talent looks like and what makes a company worth joining—and staying for. Abnormal is AI-native, so I see how AI is changing work and careers in real time. My job is to understand what matters to these builders and tell Abnormal’s story in a human, relevant way to help them see the future of cybersecurity and what they could build within it.”
“For me, Talent Acquisition has always been about leading with care - for candidates, hiring managers, and for my team. The role AI plays, creates the space for even more investment in listening, coaching and human connection.”
